between the lines: a series
by Hanna Marin
Summary: A canon drabble for each episode of Gossip Girl. WIP.  Reviews feed my soul!  If you need a recap for the episodes, they are all here: /shows/gossip-girl/episodes/season 1/
1. Chapter 1

Dan is on top of the freaking world when he leaves his Spanish class (the counselor called in a slip, something about scheduling). Senorita Lorres gave him an A on his last quiz, Jenny had made French Toast that morning (his freaking favorite), and, OH YEAH, last night he went on a date with the golden-haired girl of his dreams: one Serena van der Woodsen.

He kind of feels like getting some fresh air(his counselor checked off the "when convenient" box on the slip, and who is he to question orders?)

One of the benefits of Constance-Billard is that there are no nosy security guards out front (apparently it's the unsaid belief that the wealth and prestige alone will protect the students from the riffraff of NYC).

Dan walks along to the ivy-covered wall to his all time favorite- bench…

Only to see that it's taken.

The girl sitting there is tiny, both in height and body type. Her thin legs are sheathed in white tights, crossed at the ankles. A headband pushes her auburn hair off her face, and on it are some designer initials (though he couldn't tell you what). A cell phone is clutched in one of her hands.

Just another typical Upper East Side Girl. Dan knows the breed well.

When Dan comes closer, he realizes that she's staring blankly off into the distance, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He also can't help by notice that this isn't any Upper East Side girl- this is _the _one, the one who everyone knows but who definitely doesn't know everyone. She's their Queen, and Jenny worships the ground she walks on.

She's also kind of a bitch.

But Dan's a good guy. He prides himself on being a good guy. So even though she's-

"_What _are you looking at?" Blair Waldorf demands angrily, wiping her cheeks with her hands.

He's not positive, but he's pretty sure this is the first time she's ever spoken to him directly.

"Are you-"

"No," she answers, "unless 'ok' means having to deal with the fact that your boyfriend cheated on you and lied about it."

"Oh."

"_Yeah_," she says in a deprecating tone.

"I'm…sorry."

She smiles, and then tucks her cell in the pocket of her button-up jacket, pulling a compact mirror out of the other one in a seemingly seamless fashion.

"Apologizing for your entire gender," Blair says , dabbing the red splotches on her face with makeup, "how very _noble_ of you."

"I suppose," he says with equal dryness.

Blair pulls her hair up in a high ponytail, then stands up and gets _way_ in his personal space.

"You never saw this," she whispers in this super-scary voice, "and it never happened. _Comprenez-vous_?"

"I take Spanish."

"¿_Comprende, idiota_?"

"Hey, now, I'm not-"

"I'm so sure!" she calls out over her shoulder.

The bell rings out through the courtyard, and Dan remembers that he needs to go to the counselor.

Somehow, he's pretty sure he's going to have trouble focusing.


	2. Chapter 2

"For someone that's popular, I sure seem to catch you alone a lot," Dan says as he makes his way towards her on the sidewalk outside the hotel.

Blair glances up from her cell phone with an arched brow.

"I thought you left. But hello to you, too, Mr. Punch-a-lot."

"I only punched him once, and besides, I'm not usually...like that."

"How nice for you."

She's still wearing the white eyelet dress and what he's come to recognize as her signature headband. Shivering, Blair wraps her arms around herself against the chill autumn wind.

"So..._why_ are you out here alone?"

He could, of course, _not _annoy her. But would the fun in that be? Besides which, he wants to get to know her better, if only for the sake of getting to know Serena better by extension.

"Well, after the events of that horrendous brunch, I hate people. So I told them all that I had a headache and that I would be fine waiting for the limo on my own."

A shiny, elegant black limousine pulled up to Blair as she finished her words.

"Well, this is me. Hope your ride comes soon."

"Oh, I'm not...getting a ride."

"What?" she asked incredulously.

"Taking the Subway. The use."

Blair's dainty nose wrinkled at his mention of public transport.

He didn't find this cute.

At _all_.

"That's...horrid. Where do you live?"

"Brooklyn."

She looks like she's about to faint. He has to hold in a laugh.

"Well then, " she says, gesturing to the open door (is it just him, or is the doorman holding it looking at them with interest?), "come along. And give him the address, please."

He complies, and the driver responds with a nod. Dan then slides in, deciding to sit on the opposite end of the row, which she seems to be perfectly content with.

The upholestry is unsuprisingly luxurious. He's never been in one before, though, so he can't help but feeling like a little kid, in that way that newness always seems to feel.

Once they reach a red light, Blair says, "So. You and Serena."

"Yeah. We're kind of...I mean, we _were_...I don't know. We just had a fight, but that doesn't necessarily mean..."

Blair doesn't even glance up from her phone, as per usual.

"We're dating, " he finishes.

She does look up at this, mirth twinkling in her eyes.

"You're...you're..."

Blair doubles over into a fit of giggles.

"Why do you find that so amusing?"

"Because," she finally says, wiping a tear from under her eye, "Serena doesn't _date_. So...this should be interesting."

"Then what does she do?"

"She...flutters. Boys are like pollen to her, and they all see her as their butterfly. So it works. Also, I seriously doubt she's going to talk to you now."

"Why not? We had a fight. Couples have fights all the time."

"You dissed her entire past and rejected her...in _public_. You'll be _lucky _if she doesn't pull an Ice Queen act."

Dan considers this for a bit.

"Who are you texting?" he finally asks.

It's nosy as hell and he knows it, but she's clicking so insistently at ther keypad that he can't help but wonder.

"Everyone."

"That's a lot of people."

She offers an eye roll, slides her phone shut, and looks out the tinted window.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"My thoughts are worth far more for that...and I'm not thinking about anything too deep right now. Just that Brooklyn is very...poorly painted."

"We make up for it in food," he offers with a shrug, loosening his tie.

That makes him think of this dainty girl stuffing her face with a cheesy slice of New York's finest. He has to suppress a grin at the sudden image.

"I'll take your word for it...oh my_ God_. Do they spray-paint those everywhere here?"

"You'll have to be more specific."

Dan's own phone buzzes, and he pulls it out to see a new message from Serena.

_I'm mad at you._

God, he's toast.

"Let's just say Chuck drew that lovely appendage inside my notebook in 8th grade...and that I did not appreciate it."

"_Ha_. No, those aren't everywhere."

"Your stop, sir?"

The driver looks at Dan with raised eyebrows in the rearview mirror.

"Yeah. Thanks, man. And you, Blair, for allowing me the ride."

'Mmmm. In any case," she says curtly, "it was nice meeting you_ today_, Dan Humphrey."

He doesn't miss the emphasis on "today", and shakes the hand she offers (for the second time today) before leaving.

"Humphrey!"

He turns around to see her smiling, window rolled down.

"For what it's worth," she calls out, "thanks for punching Chuck. He needed it, and I've wanted to do it for years."

He laughs at that.

"Any time, Waldorf."


	3. Chapter 3

"Lime seltzer, please," Blair chirps, her hands tucked in front of her stick-straight skirt.

He can't help but notice that she looks very...Hillary Clinton-esque.

Well, you know. If Hillary Clinton was a 16-year-old cover girl who wore heels to compensate for her small height.

"Sure thing," he says, filling a cup up with ice.

Honestly, he's been trying to be mature about his job at this event, but the fact that he's handing out refreshments just to be near influential people irks him to no end.

"You look nice."

"I do!" she exclaims giddily, touching her swept-up hair with one hand, "it's not easy to look this professional, let me tell _you_. Your girlfriend seems to be doing everything she can to undermine that, though."

"Yeah...I noticed that."

"I noticed your outburst. 'All about screwing over Blair' indeed."

"Well, she was being immature. Here's your...whatever."

"Lime seltzer, Humphrey."

Blair clasps the tiny straw with both hands, somehow managing to not leave a lipstick mark.

"So...who did you want to meet today?" Blair asks, tilting her head to the side.

"What? No one."

"Don't bother denial," she says with an eye-roll, "Nate told me about it."

"I see."

"Mr. Rodriguez, correct?"

"Yes."

"Well?" she asks, holding her other palm out and up like a game-show host.

"Well, what?"

"Are you honestly that hopeless?"

He blinks owlishly at her.

"Apparently so," she drawls out, taking his elbow and dragging him away from the drink table."

"I'm supposed to take care of-"

"Look," she says firmly, placing a hand on his chest, "this will be a Blair Waldorf lesson in life (that I _should_ be charging for but won't): if you want something, you have to go after it, either by asking _or_ by making someone think you don't need them but that _they_ need _you_- then they do the asking and you don't even have to worry about."

She peeks stealthily behind her shoulder, drags him a little farther, and then "falls" onto Author.

Dan watches in mute horror as his literary idol stumbles backwards by the impact of Blair.

"Oh my goodness!" Blair says, taking the man by the shoulders and staring intently at him, "I am _so _sorry, I get rather excited and clumsy when I'm discussing book recs with my friend over here," she adds with a bright smile and a jerk of her head, "what was it called again, Dan? _As the World Weeps_?"

"You don't say?" Rodriguez asks, pushing his large glasses up a beaky nose.

"Yes," Dan adds quickly, "I was just discussing the gorgeous imagery, especially in..."

Blair smiles, then walks away to mingle with the Yale representatives.

As far as she's concerned, her work here is done.

He wants to hate her.

She humiliated his girlfriend in front of many very important people. He's not even sure he_ wants _to know how she found out about that Ostroff Center.

But at the same time, he knows that someone would only stoop that low if they were really, truly hurt.

So he finds it hard.

The card one of his favorite authors gave him doesn't help the matter, either...


	4. Chapter 4

"...but I wish I had, because even if nothing had changed, at least she'd know."

Blair wants to say something witty and acerbic in response, but she can't.

He came over here of his own volition and basically poured out his heart and summarized everything she's ever felt towards her parents and Serena and just...everyone.

She bites her plump red bottom lip, still trying to summon a response. It's hard, because he's looking at her right now like she's naked. Not in a dirty way (though she does _feel _dirty and exposed, as the less pretty one that throws tantrums when her goddess-like best friend gets more attention), though, just like...he _sees_ her.

She _hates_ it.

"It's not fair," she says hoarsely.

"No."

Looking into his soul-stripping eyes isn't working out so well for her, so she settles on focusing on the long, jean-clad legs that take up the width of the hallway.

"You should tell your mom," she advises.

"You should tell yours," he counters.

"Maybe I will. Not right now, though. I'm mad at her."

"You know," he points out with a grin, "you could just have fun instead. That'll probably piss her off more than ignoring her."

"I think you actually just had a good point."

"Huh. How 'bout that."

He gets up and holds a hand out to her.

"Would you like to see Serena now? I have a feeling she may have an apology."

Blair holds up both her hands.

"Not without a tetanus shot, remember?"

"Ah, of course."

Blair untucks her feet from under her legs and walks with Dan up the stairwell.

Dan's not as girly as Jenny would like to assume.

_However, when he walks into her room with her laundry, he doesn't necessarily avoid the Gossip Girl page on her computer._

_What? It's up. He's just looking._

_Gossip Girl has posted photos of Blair and Serena in the jacked clothes._

_Blair and Serena making kissy faces, jumping in the fountain, looking over their shoulders coyly, and basically hamming it up for the camera._

_He really has no earthly clue why Blair's mom excluded her from the photo-shoot. She's camera-ready, and she jumps off the page in beauty and brightness. Serena...well, Serena's beautiful, but she's every-girl beautiful. Blair is more...unique. Ethereal, even. _

_This may be the happiest he's ever seen Blair(Serena's naturally bubbly, so it's not really...special). He kind of wishes he could see her like this in person._

_There's one of Blair, her head thrown back in laughter, purse reaching for the sky._

_"Are you creeping on Serena again?" _

Dan jumps in his chair and closes the link.

"Oh, uh...yeah. I mean, no! We're dating now. It's not creeping."

"Riiight," Jenny says with an eye-roll, picking up a shirt and beginning to fold it.

Dan scowls at her.

"Don't you have homework or something?"

"I'm doing laundry, doofus."

In a mature fashion, he sticks his tongue out at her and leaves.

He really should stop looking at that site.


	5. Chapter 5

"You're home late," Jenny calls out from the kitchen.

Dan enters with his hands held up, a sheepish grin on his face.

"Dad wanted me to come home late. But what are you doing here?"

"I had to leave. It made a statement. I'm not saying it wasn't fun, though...I mean, it's _Blair_."

"_Blair_ almost got you in a lot of trouble tonight," Dan points out, grabbing a spoon from their liable-to-stick drawer and tapping the end of her Ben & Jerry's.

She swats his hand away.

"_I _almost got me in trouble, but I didn't, which we've been over. And get your own," she says around a mouthful of Cherry Garcia.

"You have the whole pint!"

"And?"

"Glad to see she's rubbing off on you nicely," he says with a scowl.

"Why do you pretend you don't like her?"

"It's not pretending."

Jenny puts her entire big spoon in her mouth, scraping the top off with her teeth and leaving it smooth. It's incredibly agonizing, since he hasn't eaten since the ridiculously overpriced salad at the restaurant he took Serena to.

"Mmm-hmm. Why'd you tell that guy to let go of her, then?"

"Because he was being a douche. And because he was, like, 25 or something."

"I dunno. You seemed angry," she offers with a shrug, pushing the pint away from her, "that's all."

Dan joins her on the other side of their small, round mosaic table, taking the ice cream in sweet victory.

"Whatever," he mumbles, "how was the sleepover, anyway?"

"It was great! She's really...she's really lived. And, I mean, she kind of only talks about herself sometimes, but all her stories are so interesting that you don't even care, you find yourself...enraptured. Also, she has eyes and ears everywhere. And even when you're doing crazy stuff, you feel, like, safe around her because you know no one would dare mess with her. I get the feeling she's going to rule the world someday, y'know?"

"Oh, God, don't even _say_ that."

"Blair says guys find women in power intimidating, and that's why they don't like them, but that real men find empowered women sexy."

"Right."

"Do you find Blair sexy?" she enquires, leaning in and raising her eyebrows.

"I'm _eating_. And you're fourteen, and my little sister, so please just don't use that word. Ever again."

"Fine. You'll have to share the ice cream with me, though."

"Consider it a deal."


	6. Chapter 6

QUEEN B: Who the hell is Vanessa?

DHUMPHREY: Um….how did you get my IM account?

DHUMPHREY: And isn't your username a *bit* pretentious?

QUEEN B: Let's just say Serena is very trustworthy, and very willing to let me do whatever I want after the night I've had…that Masquerade was a sham.

QUEEN B: Also, I have no idea what you're talking about.

DHUMPHREY: Vanessa's an old friend, as I'm sure Serena's told you. And why was it a sham?

QUEEN B: None of your business. And I am *so sure*, since typically friends don't tell friends that they love them in a more that platonic way.

DHUMPHREY: That was a year ago. Things change. People change. I'm sure you've heard of this, haven't you, Blair?

QUEEN B: *That* is a saying for simpletons. People never change. You want them to but they don't, and if they DO change that's actually what's fake, and they're the same lying, cheating, scumbags they always were.

QUEEN B: As a hypothetical example, of course.

DHUMPHREY: Of course.

DHUMPHREY: Nate trouble?

QUEEN B: Of course not. But if there WAS it wouldn't matter, given that there a line of guys waiting for the chance for me to be single.

QUEEN B: And don't change the subject.

DHUMPHREY: Being?

QUEEN B: *Being* that if you cheat on my best friend with Miss Boho Brooklyn, I will find someone to smother a pillow over your face when you sleep.

DHUMPHREY: I would never do that.

DHUMPHREY: Not all guys are the same.

QUEEN B: …except that they *are*.

DHUMPHREY: How did you even know about all this already? Does Serena tell you everything?

QUEEN B: I'm her best friend, and I'm me. What do you think, Humphrey?

DHUMPHREY: ...

QUEEN B: Sleep tight! :)

_Queen B has signed off 1:32 AM_


	7. Chapter 7

"Jenny, I'm setting something really important up," Dan said frantically, ripping his football sheets off his bed, "so unless it's deathly-"

"Dan."

This was his sister, and he knew by the way her breathing was hitched and the squeaky tension of her voice that she was at her most upset. She almost sounded like she did when she had found out Santa Claus wasn't real, all of five years ago.

Sighing, he dropped the sheets on the floor and sat on his stripped mattress.

"I'm a jackass-"

"Yeah, you are," she says with a sniffle.

"What's wrong?"

"I…I…Blair's mad at me."

"Okay, well…doesn't she get mad, like whenever her coffee's not mixed with Splenda or her favorite Louis friggin' whatever bag's not stocked? So maybe it's not so-"

"She _hates_ me."

"I'm sure she doesn't _hate_-"

"She dismissed me. She- oh God, I can't believe I screwed this up so badly! She was going to forgive me for crashing the Masque and I screwed it all-"

"Calm down," he says soothingly, running a hand over his face in frustration.

"But _Dan_-"

"It can't have been that fun working as her little frosh slave anyway, right? So-"

"We were _friends_. I wouldn't expect you to understand. We were friends and…I broke her heart."

"What? How?"

"I told her that…Nate told me he wasn't over Serena. We've been, um…talking lately."

There was absolutely no reason for that notorious, pothead junior (who, okay, seemed kind of nice that one time he'd talked to him about the usher thing) to be talking to his baby sister.

And what the hell? Dan didn't need any more competition, and he _definitely _didn't need to think about Serena's past sex partners right now.

Or…ever.

"She's probably hurt," he said, "but hopefully she'll realize you're not the one who broke it."

"I hope so...but thanks, Dan. Bye."

"Bye."

He kind of wanted to punch that Nate guy in the face (for a couple reasons, not just the Serena one, which was, admittedly…weird).

And there was definitely _not_ a pang of disappointment when he saw that Queen B was not logged on.

Not at all.


	8. Chapter 8

Blair has been bouncing around in her black tulle dress and her ballerina hair all evening, blowing kisses and eating sushi and generally being the Queen her username promises.

Given this(he might have been tipped off by her periodically checking her phone if she didn't already do that all the time), he's startled and finds that he can't look away when she leaves her cake, responding to Serena's bubbly request that she make a wish with a "I already did, and it didn't come true."

Later he holds Serena's hand and tells her not to worry, even though he feels that there may be reason to.

"Blair, I'm so sorry, I didn't think this would happen."

Dan watches from a distance. He's pretty sure he and everyone else knows what she's talking about(he, too, received the text from Gossip Girl that contained a picture of Nate holding some blonde girl).

Her minions make little cooing, sympathetic noises and wish STDs on Nate, calling the girl a slut.

"He isn't cheating. We broke up, okay?"

Vanessa nudges him and whispers, "Drama queen, much?"

"Sssh," he says.

"He was gonna get back together with me, but only so my mom would help out his dad. There. You satisfied?"

It's times like these when he thinks his criticisms of this gilded world aren't too harsh. The circumstances of it, after all, are medieval- family manipulating their kids into some kind of couple's agreement. It also seems to be bringing an otherwise confident, beautiful girl to the breaking point.

He really doesn't want to stare, especially because everyone else is staring, and he prides himself on not being like everyone else in this goddamn High Society. But he's stare as he does, and follow he doe s(though at a measured distance, again), as Serena chases Blair down a clear path through the groups of people.

"Blair, stop, you can talk to me!"

Maybe it's not his place, but he feels that maybe his girlfriend should give her some space...

Oh, fuck. She's _crying_. He's seen her cry before, obviously, when this whole Serena thing started, but this is worse because she's crying in front of everyone, and even he knows she has to be incredibly upset to allow that to happen, to shatter her top-of-the-world image.

"We ended it. I wanted to tell you, but, part of me thought that if I didn't say it out loud it wouldn't be true."

"Shhh," Serena says, pulling her in for a hug.

"It was my birthday wish, for us to get back together...and now I think it's really over."

He wonders why people try so hard to hold onto things that aren't working. God knows his parents are, eating waffles in the morning, as if that makes up for an affair.

"It's okay, I just want to be alone for a second," Blair says, slamming the door behind her.

The morning after her second time with Chuck, Blair wakes up, groggy and disoriented.

She groans in frustration when she pulls up her camisole to see the bruises on her hips (not that she was complaining about the grip that caused them last night...then she was heady with bliss). _Those_ will be fun to explain in the locker room.

Dorota knocks.

"Come in!"

Her favorite maid hurries in, holding out a silky robe for Blair to step in.

"New mail came in for Miss Blair today."

"More presents?" she asks hopefully.

"I think so."

Blair hurries down the stairs to the pile of packages spread out by her croissants and strawberries.

One on the top doesn't have a return address.

Oh, the intrigue...

Excited, she tears the top of the bubble-wrap padded, Post Office-approved package, catching the slim, silver-wrapped present inside.

"Miss Blair...you have not even had your coffee yet. What is happen-"

Blair thrusts the package at Dorota with shaking hands. She just can't help how excited she is. It feels like a book. She _never_ gets books. Nail polish, headbands, iPods, gift cards, and chocolates? Yes. Always those. And those are nice, of course, but she already has so many of them.

"Open it...please."

Dorota looks at her like she's grown two heads (probably because Blair never says "please").

"It is very beautiful..." Dorota says when she opens it, stroking the leather cover...

Blair opens her hands out, lips pursed and expectant.

Dorota hands it to her.

_Pride and Prejudic_e.

Blair sits down and flips it open.

It's the First Edition, and every page feels like cream against her fingers, and she buries her head in the pages and inhales the glorious old-book smell that she loves.

When she flips back to the front, she notices a small piece of folded notebook paper.

_I'm sorry your birthday didn't go as you wanted. Hopefully this makes it a bit better._

_-"Humphrey"_

She never mentions the gift to Serena.

It would be pointless to do so.


End file.
